Urban Farming Brought to Your Home by Tom Dixon & IKEA
Tom Dixon's research design studio and the Swedish furniture store IKEA have partnered up to present their shared vision for the future of urban farming. Their project consists of a two-level garden which can be incorporated into urban spaces and private homes to provide a sustainable solution for urban futures.
Today, more and more citizens, companies, and stakeholders are getting on board the sustainability train. With urban areas growing rapidly and the Earth’s climate not heading in a promising direction, designers and innovators, often backed by big companies, try to find solutions to increasing climate issues in cities. The incorporation of gardens, farms, and green spaces in the urban realm has been a popular solution as it has proven to be beneficial for both human and environmental well-being.
British designer Tom Dixon, in collaboration with IKEA, presented a model of an urban farm which will allow people to grow food from the comfort of their own homes. The two-level model includes a base consisting of a horticultural laboratory which implements technology that makes it possible to grow hyper-natural edibles. The top layer is a flourishing garden with trees, flowers, and plants making the project both aesthetically pleasing and great for the environment, due to its health, medicinal, and air-purifying benefits. Tom Dixon believes “gardening will save the world” as it has “transformational power”. He wants to show how functionality and beauty can be combined in a sustainable urban solution. IKEA and Tom Dixon will present their experimental model in May 2019 at the annual RHS Chelsea Flower Show in Chelsea in London.
The topic of urban farming has been widely popular in recent projects and designs. From the QO Hotel in Amsterdam that employs a full-time urban farmer, to apps helping urban farmers ‘get their hands dirty’ and work offline for a while, there are many ways gardening and farming has been incorporated into the city. This growing trend will definitely be on people’s tongues more and more in the near future. Many, like Tom Dixon, already believe that urban agriculture is the future of cities and the only eco-conscious way towards sustainable urban development.
